My ransom has been met! Congratulations reviews! As a special gift from me to you as promised, you will receive chapter nine! Hooray! It is a fine prize however, because this is a good chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

Nine:

"Am I dead?" was all Ellie could think. Her eyes were closed, this much she was sure of. She felt as though her eyelids were too heavy to crack open. Along with this came the feeling of fear. Fear for what she might see if she did open her eyes. She begins to attempt to remember what had happened, but it all felt so fuzzy and far away. As if it were someone else entirely.

"I drove drunk" she thought to herself. "Why did I do that? How could I've been so stupid? And hypocritical?" Ellie tried to remember more, but she then wished she hadn't. It all came rushing back in one quick and devastating sweep. She remembered the fight with her mother—finding out her mother checked herself out of rehab—the fight with Sean—getting wasted—and finally getting in the car. She remembered the flash of light, but only assumed she saw it because she was dead. "Am I dead?" she asked herself once more. "Am I just dreaming?"

Ellie then became very upset. She wondered why she couldn't open her eyes. She then realized that she was holding back. Part of her was afraid not only what she would see when they were open, but who she would see. As she started thinking about all her friends who were probably worried about her, she used all her will power and slowly began to squint her eyes open.

At first all she could see was a blur and she began to fear she had gone blind. She quickly began to blink, until moisture rolled down her cheeks and her vision slowly cleared. Small things in the room that contained her were slowly taking form. It was bright. She knew this much so far. It was obvious that her eyes were pried shut for quite a while because they were all puffy and pained by the light coming in through a nearby window. She could finally tell that there was a window.

As Ellie looked around—she was alone. She heard nothing but some irritating beeping coming from a machine to her right, near her head—and there for her ears as well. As she looked around even more so she slowly came to realize she was in a hospital room. Why was she in a hospital room all alone? She was about to sit up, when she felt something tugging her back down. As she looked for what had caused this, she found that she was hooked up to both a heart monitor and some other machines she didn't recognize.

She went to a panic state. What am I doing here? What are all these machines I'm connected to? Why isn't anyone with me? Questions were racing through her head rapidly and she knew this was the scariest experience she has ever had to endure.

Meanwhile, outside Ellie's hospital room and in the waiting room lingered Marco, Paige and Sean. They all looked both confused and anxious. Anxious for answers that they have been obviously deprived of. Paige and Marco were sitting down in the chairs, and Sean stood leaning against a wall.

Paige rested her head on Marco's shoulder, and she looked as if she had just been crying. She didn't only look worried, but down right terrified.

Marco on the other hand, looked detached. He seemed as though he still didn't know what was going on, there for he could feel nothing. He was empty. Hollow.

Unlike the others, Sean looked mostly angry. That's one thing he had in common with Ellie. In stressful times, came rage. He couldn't even sit down with the others because of his restlessness to get some information. It was silent. Anything anybody could say would sound as if she were already gone.

A few minutes later, a doctor came into their presence. As he entered the room, all heads shot up at him giving immediate and undivided attention. Marco put a hand on Paige's shoulder comfortingly, and then stood to face the doctor hesitantly.

"Are you friends of Ms. Nash?" He asked.

"I'm actually her brother." Marco said, knowing that was the only sure way to get some information. He knew that most of the time, news about the patients was only given to family members.

The doctor looked at him suspiciously, but ignored his doubts and continued to speak. "Ellie was as you know, in a car accident. She suffered major injuries near her abdominal, and also had a concussion. She has been having some internal bleeding, in which we have been able to stabilize—"

Everyone sighed in relief, but refocused as the doctor made a face of deep sorrow.

"Which we have been able to stabilize for the meantime." He said softly. "But it's getting worse, and at this rate we can't predict what will happen. We need you to know that were doing everything we can, but we might not be able to keep the bleeding under control."

Everybody's face suddenly dropped. Paige started crying again, Marco held his blank stare, and Sean paced around as if looking for something to kick across the room.

"I know this must be very hard for you all, but I have to tell you one more thing. As I said before, areas near and around her stomach were punctured and—I'm sorry but it seems Ellie has lost her child."

Eyes began to widen and Sean immediately rushed towards him. "Her what?" He questioned.

"You—you didn't know?" The doctor asked.

"Hell no we didn't know!" Sean was now raising his voice.

"And Ellie—"

"She didn't know either." Marco said sternly. "I know for a fact that she didn't, because otherwise I know she wouldn't—wouldn't—"

"It's okay." The doctor said almost too calmingly. "She wasn't that far along, so it happens quite frequently."

Sean stared the man down as though he were sickened by his choice of words. "It's okay?" he asked angrily. "Really? Because I came to the conclusion that everything you've been telling us, is pretty much the opposite of okay!"

Marco turned his expressionless face over to Sean, and faced him straight-on. "Sean. Don't, okay?" He looked over to see that Paige's crying hadn't stopped and that Sean was making it worse.

Sean looked apologetic at Marco before speaking again, this time much calmer and under control. "When can we see her?" He asked.

"She has just woken up recently, and has just been given the news herself. I haven't seen her yet so I suppose it depends on how she's taking it. When she is ready, I will allow visitation."

DUN DUN DUN! (Once again; music for dramatic effect).

I want to start out by saying I'm sorry. I'm so so so so sorry! I know you all probably hate me by now, but if you review, you get to see the next chapter! That's good, right? Don't hate me!

I'm holding another secret ransom, and I will post the next chapter when said ransom is met. Now, you see, I have you trapped. (once again)

A great big heap of thanks to Greg Styles, hudsygurl, S.L. Gunn, ScreamsInTheDark, Brooks's-Babey, Dahlia Faith Black,XALLOWspuffyBuFf, breathe-in3, rocklesson86, carrebear14, tribalranger, emo.kid1992, sparkle587, Chelsey, Allie and MAGRADY03! Your reviews are lovely!

Once again, please don't hate me!